"Streets are talkin man",Marcus said to me while handing me a stack of papers at the restaurant. He came out to help me close it down for the night.

"What they sayin?"

"You a convict. They scared."

"Nigga I ain't no convict. I'm not even carrying",I said laughing while wiping down the tables.

"Nah I'm just playin man. How's the life outside of work been."

"It's been okay. I'm handling it. My family coming in tomorrow morning so I gotta go to the airport and go get em."

"That's wasup. Hook me up with that hot sister of yours."

"Nigga that's my cousin. I'm an only child",I said with a chuckle.

"Whatever she is, she hot. I really want your girl but since you my boy I ain't gone steal her from you."

"Man get outta here. You outta khia's league."

"Look If all I gotta do is carry a gun around, then she'll fall in love with me."

"You sound about dumb af. She fell for me before she knew I had one."

"Look, if you weren't my bro, like I said, I would've took her from you. Especially she was lookin so good the day of her Dad funeral."

"Word?"

"Yeah man. Lemme show you",he said pulling out his phone.

"You got pics of my girl on your phone?",I asked him raising a eyebrow.

"Nah it's not even like that. It was a family pic she made me take on my phone."

I saw the pic and Khia was lookin good that day.

"I know that had to be the hardest day for her",I said shaking my head.

"Yeah man but it wasn't that bad for her. She cried more when he got shot. That's what she told me."

"Yeah true."

"How is she though?"

"She good. Being a pain in my ass some days but she good."

"What about the fam? They good with her?"

"Nah actually things got a lil worse ever since I went away. She's been at the house only once and the night she was there, they made me tell her she has to leave but I didn't. I just paid for a night at the nearest hotel and called it a night."

"Damn man I'm sorry about that."

"It's cool. We actually getting our own place soon."

"Word? Without tying the knot?"

"Yeah. I mean certain situations you can't control. You just take it as it comes."

"I hear that. Your parents know?"

"They aware. That reminds me, we gone need your help with moving."

"No problem. I got you just let me know when."

"Ight."

Just then his phone rang and he had to leave. I looked at the time and it was reaching to midnight. I knew I had class in the morning so I sped it up. Grabbing the boxes from the back and putting them on the counter, someone came into the store.

"Who that?",I asked.

"Is santiago here?",the person's voice sounded familiar. I went to the front area of the store and it was khia in a hoodie and jeans. She put her hood down and ran up to hug me.

"Hey Baby wasup? How'd you get here?",I asked her.

"I caught a lyft. It's cheaper than uber",she said casually. She made me laugh.

"Why'd you catch lyft here? You know I would've stopped by the crib if you'd ask me to."

"Yeah I know but I needed your help with somethin."

She had a backpack and took her gray granite MacBook from it and a college algebra book along with a notebook and a calculator.

"What you need help with bae?"

"These problems. I don't know how to solve them and it's due in like 20 mins."

I looked at her and chuckled.

"You need my help or you want me to give you the answers? You only got 20 mins",I said looking at the clock.

"Teach me how to do one and I'll know how to do the rest."

"Oh you serious?",I said chuckling. It wasn't no secret that I was real good in math and science cause those were my favorite subjects.

"Lemme see the problem",I said sitting next to her at the table. I taught her step by step on how to solve it and once we worked a couple problems out together, I kissed her on the forehead and let her do her thing cause I knew she was running short on time. In the meantime I restocked the tables with napkins and some condiments that was running out. I locked the front door and back door and switched the open sign to closed. After cleaning up and doing what I had to do, I sat on one of the lounge chairs and chilled there until my baby was done taking her quiz. I looked at her and she was so focused and in her element in her quiz. I smiled and just thank God I was here to help her last minute with this quiz of hers.

My phone vibrates through my pockets. Pulling it out I answered, "mamá I'm coming home soon I'm just closing the restaurant down."

"Okay hijo, is Khia with you?"

"Yeah."

"Can you bring her here for a second? Your father would like to speak to her."

I looked at Khia and I'm not sure if I wanted to put her in that position to face my parents again especially my dad.

"Lo siento mamá i have to drop her home."

"Please just bring her by. It won't be long."

"Okay mamá",i said and hung up.

"Bebé we have to stop by my house",i told her. She closed her laptop and looked up at me.

"For what? What did I do this time?"

"Nothing that i know of. I promise if anything goes down, I'll set my parents straight."

"Okay if it means more time with you",she said smiling.

"How's you do?"

"I got a 89. Missed two questions but I can deal with that. Thank you for helping me mi amor",she said and kissed me on my lips.

"Anytime Bebe. Let's get outta here."